Last year I had the blessing of spending a semester abroad in London, England. This was a major trip for me, I had loved the idea of England since I was a little girl, growing up with films like 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan. (Let it be known now, that I am a lover of all things Disney.)This was my first time in another country and unlike most programs which you do with a group of people that share your major... I was going on my own. New country No familiar faces. Let the adventure begin.

I had so much fun in my three months abroad, meeting new and interesting people from all over England, parts of Ireland, and all over America. One of the most memorable places I had gone was the day trip to Bath and Stonehenge. History has always been of interest to me, and these were places I never thought I would get to see in person.

Getting the chance to shop in places like the Camden Market and Oxford Street were other great aspects of living in London. I had seen many of my favorite youtube personalities take trips to Oxford Street and Bond Street around the holidays in their vlogs, it was surreal actually being there. (You thought staying on budget at home was bad as a college student? Try having to exchange your currency... and then repressing the need to buy everything) Budgeting aside I loved having the chance to do my pre-departure Christmas shopping in London.

Inspired by an old post on one of my previous blogs (RIP: wix), I decided to continue the trend of back to school tips since many of us are return to campus for the spring.

I have to get up reasonably early to start my commute, which doesn't leave much time to make breakfast. so my first tip is find a breakfast option that is quick and easy to make. (Don't skip breakfast) Lately my go to favorite is a fruit smoothie and whole wheat toast topped with fresh avocado, salt and pepper. A lot of times I take the smoothie to go and drink it on the drive to school.

Leave time for a stress relieving activity. Whether that's blogging, crafting, reading, or going to the gym. Right now my activity is kickboxing, but I also love to knit and this adult coloring books are a lot of fun if you want to keep yourself productive during a Netflix break.

Drink plenty of water. It sounds weird to think of it as stress relieving, but water has so many benefits that I feel like it is beneficial to relieving stress. Especially if you're prone to stress-breakouts, being well hydrated will be a major help.

This week I've decided to partner with an awesome company called May Designs, on their website you can create beautiful custom notebooks with different patterns, colors and monograms. You can even customize matching cards, photo books and other stationary.

There are numerous options to choose from when you're creating your May Book, but I decided to go with this one.

With the start of the spring semester quickly approaching I feel like now is a good time to talk about stress management. Today I tried to sleep in late, just because I know I wont be doing much of that in the next few months. I vacuumed my room, cleaned every surface and washed all the linens... aside from the curtains, I should really get around to those. I made all my necessary appointments for the next month, edited my work schedule, paid the bills, anything I could possibly think of, I did.

I feel as if that is the number one tip I could give anyone before the start of school, no matter what year you may be in. Do some spring cleaning beforehand. Take care of all your paperwork, scholarship apps, supply shopping and just general housekeeping before classes start. Even if you dont have a busy schedule sometimes things seem way more stressful than normal just because you are also working around a class schedule.

Sorry for the delay in posts, I've had a pretty productive winter intercession so far. My friend and I took a trip to our local bookstore to pick up some books at the start of break. It's been forever since I had the time to do some leisurely reading and it feels good to read something that isn't a textbook, I set a goal on GoodReads and once the semester starts I hope to squeeze in at least one extra book a month. I'm currently reading Emma by Jane Austen.

Another friend taught me to knit this month! I'm obsessed with purchasing yarn now, and I have a few projects in mind. I began knitting a scarf from baby blanket yarn, it's coming along and seems super cozy!

In other news I'm on the lookout for some brands/Etsy shops etc. to possibly collaborate with, if anyone has anything in mind please leave a comment in the contact form in the sidebar.

About Me

'A Cruelty Free Me' (formerly Simply Luxe) started in 2015. As a communications student I was required to take a course in public speaking and decided to inform my class about laboratory testing for my informative speech.
After giving the presentation, I began to realize how difficult it can sometimes be to find alternatives to the every day products that I didn't previously know were tested on animals. I decided to challenge myself to find the best alternatives to products I used previous to learning about animal testing. This blog is my space to review and share those finds.
'A Cruelty Free Me' includes posts about cruelty free skincare, makeup, and haircare, as well as fitness related content.